New Delhi: Increases in customs duty on some imported engine components and completely knocked down (CKD) units are set to put a brake on the surging sales of luxury cars.

Audi India, which had forecast double-digit growth this year, now expects sales in the year to be little changed over 2017.Vikram Pawah, president of BMW India, said sales would have grown faster had it not been for the sudden increase in taxes, which will force the company to raise prices from April.

New Delhi: Taking note of slowing exports growth, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has called a meeting of key officials from the ministries of finance and commerce to expedite clearance of exporters’ refunds for the goods and services tax (GST). The Department of Commerce has strongly demanded clearance of exporters’ refunds to address their working capital issue impacting India’s outbound shipments. “The PMO has finally stepped in to resolve exporters’ concerns under the GST, with the commerce ministry and the finance ministry on different pages on the matter. The exports should not suffer because of administrative loopholes,” said a senior government official.

Exporters claim only 10 per cent of refunds has been made by the government for input tax credit and 30 per cent in case of the integrated GST (IGST). These claims have been contested by the finance ministry. According to the Central Board of Excise and Customs, the nodal department for the GST implementation, 88.77 per cent of refunds have been disbursed for input-tax credit claims. “Of the Rs 41 billion claimed under completed applications, we have already refunded Rs 37 billion,” said a finance ministry official.

NEW DELHI: Readymade garments, gems and jewellery, and agricultural products, which have traditionally represented India’s exporting prowess, all lost market share in the past five years.

Cars, diamonds, maize, trousers, make-up and skincare items, handbag and cotton sweaters figure in the list of 61 products where India lost market share between 2011 and 2016.

Although India failed to cater to increasing demand for high-end cars and handbags, it lost market share in gold and silver jewellery due to the rise of competitors such as China, and Cambodia and Bangladesh in readymade garments.

The government would announce a comprehensive foreign trade policy in August, which would emphasise stimulus to trade, besides granting sops to exporters to beat the global economic meltdown, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said today.

The ministry is also looking as steps to boost export, which has been hit hard by the worst economic downturn overseas since the 1930s, even though India has not been affected to a great extent, Sharma told reporters here.

Sounding optimistic, Sharma said by September this year there would be visible increase in export after the various proposes incentives are given to exports.

The Commerce Ministry is would also recommend some measures to the Finance Minister in this regard, he added.

Sharma said he has also advised officials of his ministry and the Director General of Foreign Trade to look for new avenues to boost the foreign trade in Latin American and African countries besides others.

Replying to questions, Sharma said he would soon convene a meeting of the industry ministers of all the states to discuss problems facing industrial sector and to encourage export and foreign trade.